“I’m optimistic, I think that if senators — both Republicans and Democrats — really are listening to people in their states they know that people are hurting,” he said Wednesday on MSNBC.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on legislation that includes $50 billion in infrastructure spending and $10 billion to seed an infrastructure bank. The provisions are a part of President Obama’s jobs package.

Republicans have lined up against the measure because it would be paid for with a surtax on incomes over 1 million dollars. No Republican senator has supported any part of the American Jobs Act when it came in votes on the Senate floor.